HacktoberFEST 2019 is coming!
Greeting everyone on the Internet!
It is the end of September. At this time every year, many people all around the globe join the Hacktoberfest. They are developers, IT students or just someone with interest in programming and open source. They come together with one goal in their mind: to earn themselves... A T-SHIRT.
HacktoberFEST is an annual event where the participants contribute code to the open source community. The event is organized in the month of October from the 1st to the 31st. The contributors are encouraged to make 4 pull requests to Github-hosted repositories and get stickers and a T-shirt as a reward.
I see this event as an opportunity for me to grow as a developer and a contributor in the open source community and so should you! I specifically set for myself 2 goals that I want to achieve at the end of Hacktoberfest which I have already signed up.
Goal #1: To learn something new: Python, perhaps?
As a student at Seneca College, I have been taught languages like C, C++, Java and JavaScript which currently are powerful languages (especially JavaScript). These languages can cover mostly all sectors of the IT industry from building websites (frontend and backend), mobile apps, PC apps or apps for embedded devices.
However, I still feel that a big part of it (i.e.: Machince Learning, Data Processing...) is still left out and that would be Python. It is a robust and easy-to-learn scripting language that I have heard of so many times but never had a chance to explore. I want to use this chance to be capable of programming with this amazing language.
Goal #2: To see my work being shipped in a real-world product:
It feels good to make a change in the world. It feels better to make a change that people might appreciate one day. It is even better if I can do that when I am still a student. My professor said: "You do not have to work for Microsoft or Google to contribute to Microsoft or Google." Although I am not aiming that high, I aim that, at the end of this event, my knowledge and skills can be used to contribute to a product out there that some people will use and, hopefully, come to love.
Preparation
In order to prepare myself for the event, I have gone through many pages of issues on Github to find the ones that I think I am both capable and comfortable working with. Three issues that I think I will attempt to solve are the following:
1) whatismyviewport: Add Service Worker to make the app work offline
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| The app's simple view |
As I was fortunate to have an international exchange course in Denmark before where I studied about making Progressive Web App (PWA), I think it would be cool that I can apply that piece of knowledge I learnt there to my first solved issue of Hacktoberfest. Besides that, the app is very useful for frontend developer and I see no reason why the app would need an Internet connection.
2) Budget-CLI: Add capability to edit existing transaction entry
This one is an expense/income recording tool using the command-line interface. It is written in Python and interacts with Google Spreadsheet's API to add/remove entries to a template. The issue was filed by the maintainer of the repository that it needs the capability to edit existing entries.
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| The app controls the addition and deletion of rows in a Google Spreadsheet document |
3) tmessage: Implement user authorization and verification
Finally, this Python app is a messenger app that works on command-line. For now, the app works based on port and does not separate between users. The maintainer of the app wants the community to help him add this functionality.
I think this project is a good way for me to learn more about Python, especially in Socket Communication and Security - which happens to be a course I dropped out for the current open source course at the beginning of this semester.
I hope that everyone is excited to join and do your best to contribute and, of course, enjoy this experience. I wish you good luck and happy hacking!
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